WELLMAN

The crucial moment came with 2 minutes, 22 seconds remaining in the third quarter of Thursday night’s Class 2A regional tournament game.

A basket by Mediapolis senior forward Sadin Kalek had trimmed Mid-Prairie’s lead to three points, 32-29. The Golden Hawks, who had won every game this season and were playing their final home game in front of a packed house, were in retreat.

So head coach Daren Lambert called for a timeout, not to draw out an offensive play but to just talk to his team.

“We need to relax. We’re in a moment of adversity,” Lambert told them.

The Golden Hawks responded with a dominating 24-point run that led to a 57-31 victory and a school-record 22^nd consecutive win.

“This feels amazing,” said senior center Ethan Kos, who scored a game-high 18 points and was a constant offensive weapon during the 24-0 run. “Lambert told us in the locker room that we have the new record with 22. So it feels amazing.”

Mid-Prairie’s 22 wins breaks the single-season record of 21 consecutive wins by the 1990-91 team. Assistant coach Kelby Bender was a starter on that team.

“It’s definitely something cool because, you know, Kelby was on that team that did that,” senior guard Will Cavanagh said.

“I had to remind them that they broke the school record tonight and to smile a little bit,” Lambert said. “They’re pretty tough on themselves, so sometimes you have to say, ‘Hey, embrace the moment and embrace what you just did.’ “

The victory sends the Golden Hawks to the final round of the Class 2A District 12 tournament. Mid-Prairie (22-0) will face West Burlington (12-11) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mount Pleasant High School. A victory in that game would send the Golden Hawks to a substate final Feb. 26, a game that will determine a qualifier for the state tournament.

And clearly that is the goal for these Golden Hawks.

“Like we’ve been saying all year … we’ve got a goal in mind that’s more important than just the record,” Cavanagh said.

“If you went in that locker room tonight, you would almost think that we lost,” Lambert said. “They expect more out of themselves. Kind of that championship mindset, where there’s aways more to go when the job’s not done. That’s kind of been the phrase that we’ve adopted the last couple of weeks is the job’s not done.”

That determination was evident following the Golden Hawks timeout in the third quarter against Mediapolis. Cavanagh emerged from the timeout and hit a 3-pointer for a 35-29 Mid-Prairie lead. Senior guard Jack Pennington hit a free throw in the next offensive possession. Then, Alex Bean scored on an offensive rebound and Kos went inside for a basket, giving the Golden Hawks a 40-29 lead entering the final quarter.

Kos scored the first three hoops of the final quarter and four in the first two minutes.

“When we got him the ball, it seemed like he finished almost every time,” said Mid-Prairie senior forward Carter Harmsen. “He was really good at finishing tonight.”

“I got caught up in the moment, especially getting those back-to-back shots,” Kos said. “We just needed to find our little groove again and we did.”

Defensively, Mid-Prairie slammed the door on Mediapolis. The Bulldogs (16-7) didn’t score in the final quarter until Cole Lipper hit a shot with 1:08 left in the game.

“That’s kind of what we hang our hat on,” Lambert said. “We talk about it all the time. Defense has to be there every single night every single possession.”

It was the eighth time this season that the Golden Hawks have held an opponent under 40 points.

Harmsen had a team-high 11 rebounds and 5 steals to go along with 13 points. Pennington had 4 steals and 4 assists.